Anyone else having a hard time feeling optimistic? Anyone else feeling helpless and impotent in the face of such a global and collective forgetting that all lives matter?

My gut instinct is to turn off the news, quit reading the paper, get off the grid, and hide under the covers from the constant stream of negativity.

But like children hiding under the covers from the Closet Monster, we all know that doesn’t make it go away. Getting up, opening that closet, and bravely confronting your fears is what makes our anxieties go away.

I don’t want to cower in the darkness. I want to stand arms wide, face tilted to the sun soaking up the light.

I refuse to believe hate wins. I have faith that love is always greater than hate.

So what is the first step forward toward the light?

Doing something kind for someone else. Like a pebble thrown into the water rippling throughout the entire pond, it doesn’t take much to make a difference:

Call your grandma

Tell a stranger they look nice

Roll your neighbor’s garbage cans in

Invite your in-laws over for dinner

Help an elderly shopper at the grocery store

Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in the drive-thru

Tell your spouse why you appreciate them

Give an old friend an actual date to the Let’s-Get-Together-Sometime

Play with the dog as long as it wants to

Tell a child how talented or smart they are

The possibilities for simple acts of kindness are endless! And what if each and every day, as part of our worldly routine, as vital as eating, drinking and sleeping, we asked ourselves: What have I done for someone today?

And then we went about and made sure we could answer that with as many acts of kindness as possible.

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